Town told to bridge language gap

But money for bilingual staff is lacking

MATTAWA, Wash. — Nearly everyone in this small farming community in eastern Washington speaks Spanish - except those in city government and the police department, where English is spoken.

And almost everyone who speaks one language does not speak the other.

It is a language barrier that has engulfed the community, which has grown over the past 20 years from 300 to about 3,200 year-round residents. Nine out of 10 Mattawa residents speak Spanish at home and 8 out of 10 adults speak English "less than very well," according to the 2000 U.S. census.

The Columbia River basin community, surrounded by miles of fruit orchards and vineyards, has tried to deal with its language barrier informally. From the first gas station to the last retail shop, signs advertise goods and services in Spanish and English. The tiny library offers bilingual story time for families. For years, police often relied on bystanders to translate at crime scenes. City administrators grabbed bilingual speakers as ad hoc interpreters.

But the gap between an English-speaking city government and an overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking population has grown so wide that the federal government has stepped in to mandate that the city bridge the divide.

After a Civil Rights Act complaint filed by a legal aid group, the U.S. Department of Justice worked with the city and its police department to develop a language assistance plan.

Adopted in March, the plan is unique in Washington and is seen as a bellwether for cities with similar demographics. The plan requires Mattawa to employ at least one bilingual employee during regular business hours and to make vital information available in Spanish as well as English. It also requires the police to have qualified interpreters on call at all times.

For a long time, the Northwest Justice Project knew that Mattawa police did not speak Spanish and did not use interpreters, said Judith Lurie, senior attorney for the group that filed the federal complaint.

Then a call for help in a domestic violence case focused the issue.

Mattawa police allowed the suspect to leave the scene to go and find someone to interpret, Lurie said. The man never returned.

"Victims of domestic violence rely on the police to protect them," Lurie said. In Mattawa, "they were not being adequately protected because the police were not using interpreters to communicate."

Mattawa Mayor Judy Esser categorized the domestic violence case as unusual. Before the language agreement, police and city officials usually had someone around who could translate.

"We thought that was enough," she said.

The Justice Department said the town had to provide interpretation and translation for people who aren't English-proficient. In places that have a high percentage of monolingual Spanish speakers, that means all city services, including law enforcement, have to be available in Spanish.

Hiring bilingual police officers and city staff costs money the town doesn't have, the mayor said. Mattawa employs one provisional officer and three full time.

"We are in a huge competition with every city," Esser said. "It is tough to find bilingual people, especially when the state patrol and county sheriff pay more."

Mattawa, about 150 miles east of Seattle, is not a wealthy place.

The town is wedged between the Yakima Training Center Military Reservation and the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site. During harvest season, the town's population nearly doubles with migrant farm workers. They journey hundreds or thousands of miles to pick apples, pears and cherries.